Root exploit for Snapdragon-powered Galaxy S4 now available

If you’ve just recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy S4 and you want to root your device, then you’re in luck — at least if you have the US version and other variants that run the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor. XDA Developers’ “drbliss” has published a recent root exploit originally meant for Motorola devices — aptly called “Motochopper” — which also works on the Galaxy S4.

The only limitation is that the exploit works only on Qualcomm Snapdragon 600-powered devices, including those that are co-branded by AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. International variants that run Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa chips will not work with this root exploit.

The process is simple: download the Motochopper archive, have the latest Samsung USB drivers on your machine, and ensure you have USB debugging turned on. Windows users then need to run the supplied run.bat batch file, while OSX and Linux users should run the supplied run.sh Shell script.

A word of caution, though: no custom recoveries or stock images are available for the Galaxy S4 at this point. This means you might have a hard time fixing your device in case you brick or soft-brick it. Also, drbliss warns that OTA updates might remove the ability to regain root access through this exploit (until another one is discovered).

But given that Samsung’s flagship series usually gets the most active development amongst enthusiasts, we think it should only be a matter of time until developers release custom recoveries, custom ROMs and stock ROM images, so tinkerers and tweakers can more easily play with their Galaxy S4.